NEW DELHI: Lingerie retailer Zivame has approached the government to convert its existing venture into a single brand retailer, becoming the latest to take advantage of a 2015 policy that allows foreign-funded companies selling only their own brands to build ecommerce channels to offer the products.

Actoserba Active Wholesale, which owns Zivame, has applied to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) for expansion of its existing facilities and conversion of wholesale to retail operations, “to undertake single brand retail trading of Zivame branded products, including (through) ecommerce”, according to the DIPP website.

Italy’s fashion brand Benetton, one of the oldest foreign brands to enter India, has also applied to the DIPP to change its existing model to single brand and to undertake its own ecommerce. Currently, Benetton operates a wholesale business in India that supplies products to be sold through a network of franchisee outlets.

Zivame didn’t respond until press time Thursday to an email seeking comment. Sundeep Chugh, chief executive of Benetton India, said his company has filed the application “to be able to create an omnichannel experience for our customers” in India.

Earlier this year, online furniture marketplace Urban Ladder filed an application to change its business into a similar single-brand structure so that the company could stock and sell its own products — offline and online — without forgoing overseas investment.

ET had reported that a host of ecommerce brands including FabAlley and Yepme were considering changing their businesses to single brand.

In 2015, Zivame raised Rs 250 crore in a series-C funding round from Zodius Capital and Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad, even as the lingerie firm pivoted from an online marketplace to selling only its own brands. on its platform post the capital raise.